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Showing posts with label people. Show all posts
Showing posts with label people. Show all posts

Thursday, February 29, 2024

Best wishes to WGN's Tom Skilling

 

[VIDEO] I'm sorry I didn't tune in tonight for the longtime Channel 9 meterologist Tom Skilling. On Wednesday night he signed off for the last time on Channel 9 and soon we'll be seeing more of Demetrious Ivory giving us our nightly weather updates.

It's sad to see longtime personalities move on from their most familiar roles. I want to wish Skilling the best in his retirement. He will be missed.

Here on this blog you can check current temperatures and current conditions at the top of this blog just under the blog title.

EDIT: This is about Tom Skilling if you're a fan find him at facebook.com/TomSkilling

Wednesday, March 22, 2023

ABC 7 Chicago: Ed Gardner dies at 98

 

[VIDEO] Ed Gardner in addition to being a husband, father, grandfather was also a longtime businessman having owned Soft Sheen Products and this entertainment business known as House of Kicks located at 95th & Cottage Grover you might see some scenes of that in the above story from WLS-TV. He was also formerly a CPS teacher. Also he was a veteran of the Second World War.

He was still active in 2012 as you see part of a protest to help Black workers on these public works jobs. He helped to register people to vote also. He made the world a better place.

Oh wait he also at one point owned the Avalon Regal Theater located at 79th & Stony Island.

May he rest in peace.

Monday, February 27, 2023

Bereavement Notice #Ward09

 This was just sent in an e-mail blast by the office of Alderman Anthony A. Beale.  The email announced the death of Vanessa A. Brown who had been Ald. Beale's chief-of-staff for 24 years. I will offer my condolences to her friends and family.



Friday, November 11, 2022

Happy Veteran's Day #Devotion

 To all veterans out there, thank you for your service to the United States of America.

I want to share with you all this movie Devotion which will be released November 23, 2022 according to the movie's website. It chronicles the life of Korean War naval aviator ENS. Jesse Brown who unfortunately lost his life during that conflict. Perhaps some of you will go to the Chatham 14 Theaters to watch this movie. [VIDEO]


Friday, February 4, 2022

WGN News: A final insult for a fallen officer

 

[VIDEO] Titus Moore died in his home of coronavirus or COVID-19 in November 2020 and one final insult has been that WGN reports that his home has been broken into. His family due to this pandemic hasn't been to enter his home to retrieve any of his belongings. The people who were caught breaking into his home have claimed when confronted by police there were there to secure and winterize his home. 

Thankfully the neighbors of West Chesterfield keeps an eye on suspicious activities at his home and unfortunately police were called but as you see in the story above police only just suggested they possibly "come back tomorrow". The home is said not to be in foreclosure and the implication is that there is no reason for any mortgage company to secure and winterize the home and of course some items have been stolen from the property.

Monday, July 26, 2021

Former Ald. Robert Shaw dies #Ward09

 Robert Shaw served two non-consecutive terms as Alderman of the 9th Ward with his more recent tenure ending in 1998 when he was ultimately succeeded by current Alderman Anthony Beale.

It was noted that in addition to be an alderman he served as a member of the Cook County Board of Appeals and not only ran for Village President of South Holland but attempted to run against Rahm Emanuel in 2014. Here's a statement from Ald. Beale regarding Shaw's death
Current 9th Ward Ald. Anthony Beale remembers Shaw for his determination and push for inclusivity.

“On behalf of the 9th Ward and the Roseland and Pullman community, I want to express my sincere condolences to the family of Robert Shaw,” Beale said in a statement. “Chicago lost a man whose passion for public service, reaching out to everyone and working with everybody, is one I enjoyed and respected. I will remember him as one who sought solutions to bring people together and to make positive change.”

Saturday, December 5, 2020

Supt. David Brown shared this tweet Friday about Officer Titus Moore

Titus Moore died at his West Chesterfield home Nov. 24, 2020 and Supt. Brown share this tweet Friday night noting that there will be an honors funeral for this 14-year CPD veteran.


Saturday, November 28, 2020

WGN News: Chicago police officer who died while battling COVID-19 lived life to the fullest

 

[VIDEO] WGN has more about Titus Moore, the police officer who was found dead at his home in West Chesterfield earlier this week. Reportedly he was battling the coronavirus.

Glad to see this report that shows the human side of the officer. Condolences to his friends and family.

Thursday, November 5, 2020

I like to see stories like this in the news

 

[VIDEO] I'm sorry to say I missed this one when it aired. The Roseland Pharmacy located on Michigan Avenue was hit by looting in the unrest as a result of what happened with George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minn.

Well the owner Howard Bolling had help from the community to remain open. Bolling has been a fixture there since December 12, 1973. This story aired on WGN and was uploaded to YouTube on June 23, 2020.

Monday, December 17, 2018

ABC 7: Officer suicides spur Chicago police effort to break mental health stigma

[VIDEO] Story aired earlier this week on ABC 7 about the police officer who killed herself in the parking lot of the Calumet District on 111th Street. Her family talks about her and we hear from police superintendent Eddie Johnson who said he worked with Regine Perpignan.

 I wrote about this over at The Sixth Ward in September and said, "We have to treat them better than it seems we have been recently." I'm glad to hear the steps the police plan to take to normalize the notion that police officers need help. And it's great to know that counselors will be available to officer in the various districts.

Thursday, February 1, 2018

Nick Smith succeeds Elgie Sims for 34th district state representative

On Wednesday with Elgie Sims moving up to his mentor's - Donne Trotter - state senate seat there was now a vacancy in Sims' 34th state house district. In a meeting with Democratic bosses Nick Smith was named Sen. Sims successor in this state house seat. Smith is the current 9th ward Streets and Sanitation superintendent and was at one point a former President of the Roseland Heights Community Association.

Though I said I was going to step back from Nextdoor it was interesting the see the names who presented their credentials for this vacancy. Michael Lafargue of West Chesterfield, Richard Wooten a former police officer who actually ran for this seat in 2012, Jahmal Cole of My Block My Hood My City, Eli Washington of Chesterfield. These are all names many of us have heard of in the public as leaders of community or youth organizations.

It let's you know that even though many of us didn't get to vote on any of these names, you can have an impact in your community and you can forward your name for any political position. And of course the possibility is there that you can become a person state official using in part that experience.

Congrats to state Rep. Smith!

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

WLS: Bill Campbell, former ABC7 colleague, recovering from stroke

[VIDEO] I posted about this over at The Sixth Ward on Saturday morning longtime TV personality Bill Campbell who worked at WLS-TV until his retirement in 2010 had recently suffered a stroke. Campbell I had learned by finding his LinkedIn is a graduate of Harlan Community Academy, also I have heard he is also a graduate of Bennett Elementary School.

Regarding his current condition.
Although Bill is recovering, he still needs vital rehab and care, much of which is not covered by his insurance.

"Friends of Bill Campbell" have generated a GoFundMe page if you'd like to contribute to his care. We wish Bill a speedy and full recovery.
Here's hoping for a speedy recovery. As written over at "The Sixth" GO FALCONS and because I'm old school and disappointed in recent years that Bennett had changed their mascot GO BADGERS!

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Donzell Starks RIP

On Monday, we've learned that Donzell Starks - with his wife Alisa Starks one of the owners  ICE Theaters - he died due to pancreatic cancer according to a fb status shared on Concerned Citizens of Chatham .

Also in that same status Alisa was referred to as his ex-wife, unsure if that could be verified independently of social media.

One of the main stories we covered during the past four years revolves around the ownership of the Chatham 14 changing hands. With a business dispute causing ICE Theaters to be evicted from the Chatham with operations taken by new ownership. Currently, the Chatham is owned by the Texas based company Studio Movie Grill.

In 1997 ICE Theaters built and opened theaters in the Chatham, Englewood, and Lawndale bring movie theaters back into inner city neighborhoods. He without a doubt leaves behind a significant legacy that hopefully other entrepreneurs in our communities will also do something as groundbreaking.

Condolences to the Starks family.

EDITED 10/4/2016 8:45 PM- Another post via Concerned Citizens of Chatham shows information on memorial services.

Thursday, April 7, 2016

DNA Info: He's Just 24, But Englewood Native Is Passing Out Scholarships To Give Back


Mr. Cassius Rudolph via DNA Info
And this story involves Harlan High School and I think this is just great. The kids in our neighborhood schools needs this and who says they have to go to a selective enrollment school:

Cassius Rudolph believes "you should pour back into the community what the community poured into you."

The 24-year-old Englewood native credits family, friends and church for guiding him through the South Side's rough streets to the graduation stage at Harlan High School and Tougaloo College.

Rudolph, now a graduate student at Columbia University's Union Theological Seminary, is the first person in his family to graduate from college.

This month, he's giving back, awarding at least three $1,000 scholarships to seniors at Harlan, 9652 S. MIchigan Ave., who will be attending Tougaloo, a historically black college in Jackson, Miss.

"Charity begins at home," Rudolph said. "My message to the kids in Chicago is they can make it if they work hard, study hard and ask for help."
25 Harlan seniors have applied and hopefully by next year 10 scholarships will be offered as opposed to only 3. I wonder where he gets this money from. Either way this is great, more stories like this please!

GO FALCONS!

Monday, December 7, 2015

Konkol: Roseland's Only Steak House Survives Tough Times Down At 'The Ranch'

Yolanda Pierce at right and two of her workers - Photo by Mark Konkol
All the times I passed this place on Michigan Ave and never been inside. It seems to be one of the few consistent businesses on this stretch. It survived a long time and apparently still does although times and demographics have changed since this business opened in 1969.
On a morning stroll, I hiked west from Pullman and under the 113th Street viaduct that leads to the wrong side of the tracks.

I walked past Palmer Park, where the faint scent of marijuana hung in the cool, humid air, and headed up the hill toward Michigan Avenue — Roseland’s once-vibrant shopping strip now populated by hustlers, pimps and dealers who openly cater to the vices of the addicted, the desperate and the damned — on my way to “The Ranch.”

That’s what locals call the neighborhood’s only surviving steak joint, where you can get a T-bone, charbroiled just the way you like it, with a baked potato and salad for less than 20 bucks. And they serve tasty breakfast — two eggs with hash browns and toast for under $5 — all day long.

The late John Kapsaskis opened The Ranch Steak House at 11147 S. Michigan Ave. in 1969. Back then, Roseland was home to mostly blue-collar white families who later fled to the suburbs when black folks moved in and good-paying steel mill jobs dried up. His son, Dino — “The Greek Cowboy,” as one photo behind the counter calls him — kept the family steakhouse going even as the neighborhood’s population changed and its economy slumped.

Inside the front door is a far different world than the one left behind on the sidewalk. A set of bull horns hang from the ceiling. A sign welcomes customers to a dimly lit dining room decorated with carved Indian chief statues and faded photos of cowboys, those rifle-toting white men on horseback from Hollywood westerns.
Yolanda Pierce runs the ranch although the family who owns it no longer appears to be involved. Pierce's ex-fiance who's family runs the business is out taking care of his elderly mother in Greece. So now it's Pierce:
She’s the blond-haired, blue-eyed gal, a former hair stylist from Griffith, Indiana, who runs The Ranch now that Dino Kapsaskis — the owner and her ex-fiance — packed up and moved to Greece to take care of his 93-year-old mother.

Pierce’s friends tell her she should be angry that Kapsaskis left her to run The Ranch by herself, unsure if he’ll ever return.

“Even though he is my ex, this is his business. Dino could have sold this place. He always said business is business. He felt like he was doing me a favor. If I go anywhere else I’ll make minimum wage. What can I do?” Pierce said.

“We still care about each other enough to keep it going. I’m not mad at him. He did what he had to do. I’m taking care of my mother. I take care of my daughter. I do what I got to do.”
If you read the rest of the article she'll not that this place considering it's location isn't making a huge profit but she emphasizes how she helps her employees:

She doesn’t just do it for herself and her own family. The Ranch is the lifeblood that keeps a lot of people — her dishwasher, waitresses and cooks and even Kapsaskis, whom Pierce sends cash she considers “rent” — on the winning side of “the struggle.”

“They say when you eat at Outback Steakhouse or one of those chain places you’re paying for the owner's private jets and fancy houses. What we make helps everyone here. Nobody makes a lot of money. Here, you’re paying for our people to buy clothes for their kids,” Pierce said.

“I just feel like I don’t care if it’s a struggle. I’m gonna keep it going and that’s how Dino feels, too. No matter what, we’re going to try to keep The Ranch open for as long as can. Either things are going to get better or … whatever.”
I suggest you read the whole thing. This is a course on how to run a business in a difficult community to own a business. You may not agree with everything Griffith says about parking meters or minimum wage

Here's hoping The Ranch survives for any position renaissance that I expect Roseland to one day have. Especially when the CTA Red Line is finally extended further south. Plus I hope that the Pullman National Monument will have an effect on the surrounding communities as well.

Monday, February 23, 2015

Ted Williams III interviewed on #Aldertrack

[VIDEO] So if I read the e-mail correctly, this is the last of the Aldertrack interviews with candidates for Alderman in 2015. And current series ended with Ted Williams running in the 9th ward. He had previously interviewed Michael LaFargue & Noonie Ward previously in the 9th. Unfortunately we never had a chance to see Foucher interview the incumbent Anthony Beale.

Well I hope you have watched those interviews and will make an informed choice in tomorrow's election. Anything said by Professor Williams would sway your vote for alderman?

Thursday, February 5, 2015

My Block My Hood My City visits Altgeld Garden #mbmhmc

[VIDEO] I'm sorry this hadn't been shared here. Please visit My Hood My Block My City and consider buying a t-shirt or hoodie sweatshirt. You'll be supporting this project when you do.

Jahmal Cole is in the middle of a project that took him to at first different Chicago parks. For example he did one episode in Abbott Park where he met with Republican US Senate candidate Jim Oberweis.

Lately he's been going to different neighborhood and this week he visited Humboldt Park on the northwest side of town. Today we're going to look at his visit to Altgeld Garden located near the far south city limits of Chicago. Mr. Cole refers to the Garden as President Obama's old stomping grounds there was where the President made his living as a community organizer.

There is one landmark of note here for the Garden.
"The Wall" or "The Wall of Death" lists the names of deceased Altgeld Residents --- going back decades. It's a tradition at the Gardens to write the names on the wall, so the person's name will be set on stone and never forgotten.  This is social capital at its finest. In the Pullman community, residents that live on a different tier of the Socioeconomic ladder, hang fancy art work on the gates in their alleys. At the Altgeld Gardens, the local residents write names on the wall. Beauty can't be stratified.
Via The Sixth Ward

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

DNA Info: Morehouse College Graduate Seeks To Become Chicago's Youngest Alderman

Corey Hardiman by DNA Info Wendell Hutson
I wrote about this young man this past March when he brought a group of students from his alma mater - as a graduating senior at that point - to the south side of Chicago for a spring break service project. Now he wants to unseat 9th Ward Alderman Anthony Beale and DNA Info profiles the recent college graduate:
"I know people may think I am too young and inexperienced and that I won't be able to raise enough money to put fourth a good fight but that's what they said (in 2008) about President Barack Obama," Hardiman told DNAinfo Chicago Monday. "If he was able to do it then so can I."

The aspiring politician, who is a member of Salem Baptist Church, said he is scheduled to speak at 6 p.m. Monday to residents at the Altgeld Gardens public housing complex on the far South Side, which is part of the 9th Ward.

"I am going to speak to residents to let them know their opinion matters to me and I want to hear their concerns regardless if they are a registered voter or not," Hardiman said. "Ever since I graduated from high school I have always wanted to enter politics to make a difference in my community."

In 2010 after graduating from George Corliss High School as a Gates Millennium Scholar, where Beale is also an alumnus, Hardiman predicted at Mayor Richard M. Daley's annual interfaith breakfast at U.S. Cellular Field that he would run for mayor after finishing college.

"Well, maybe I was aiming too high at the time," Hardiman said. "But I certainly think it is a realistic goal."

Among the biggest issues facing the ward, Hardiman said, is public safety, education and economic development. While he praised Beale, 46, for "finally" getting a Walmart store in the ward, he said much more needs to be done on an economic level.

"If we could get President Obama's library to the far South Side that would create unlimited opportunities economically," Hardiman said. "Gone are the 'ma and pa' businesses in the 9th Ward and we need to bring back those small, family-owned businesses."
Here's an FB page if you wish to follow his campaign for 9th Ward Alderman.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Scene outside of Shedd School after school Friday

Click the photos for a better resolution.
 The flag was at half-staff on the flag pole outside of Shedd School.
Then the tribune to Mrs. Ellis on the outside marquee. Bennett didn't sport this on their board outside of that school on Wednesay.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Sad news!!!

Well this morning I found out that my former 3rd grade teacher and the current Principal at Bennett-Shedd Elementary School Barbara J. Ellis had passed away yesterday. I don't have anymore information than that, however, I called Bennett School today to ask about the LSC meeting tomorrow. Current information is that it will still be held tomorrow. I expect to be there tomorrow afternoon.

That being said, it's really unfortunate that she WILL not be there tomorrow.

RIP